40 teams completed the third EPIC (Enigmatic Pseudo Insane Challenge) held at Ophir in Central Otago on Saturday. The EPICs owe a lot to the long-running T'Walks with some mind-work requiring to be done to locate the exact checkpoints once you are in the vicinity, but of course the ability to cover a lot of ground as in a rogaine or mountain marathon is pretty helpful as well. The man behind the EPICs is none other than Southern Traverse winner and national orienteering champion Bruce McLeod of Queenstown.
"The Juke Box Babies" consisting of WRC4 second-placegetter Chris Forne and Joe Jagusch (Chch) claimed a clear lead with 2700 out of 3230 points, but Phil Wood and Sarah Clark (Auckland) did extremely well for second place, a smidgeon ahead of the Chch/Dunedin team of Michael Smithson, Julian McLAren and Michael Tagg.
Full results are on the EPIC website. There will be another EPIC on 2 November, and a "Pedal EPIC" is planned for 2003!
This page written by Michael Wood and installed 25 Aug 02